A Travel & Culture Blog For People Who Hate Tourists

Please Don’t Manspread in Madrid, or In Any City Anywhere

Not to be confused with mansplaining or manscaping, manspreading is the act of an “adult” male spreading his legs wide, usually on public transportation. This scourge on society causes discomforted to other passengers with the leg-on-leg contact. It prompted New York City to create subway advisory posters to alert dudes, bros and douchebags to keep their damn legs shut. The ads give you something to ponder during delays or to divert your attention away from the masturbating pervert in the car.

Now, cities like Madrid, Toronto and Tokyo are getting in on the act with their own cutsy advisories. In Madrid, “Por favor, no el manspreading” with the hashtag #MadridSinManspreading was instituted because of a public outcry.

In Tokyo, their subway advertisement is free of strange costumed mascots or crazy-eyed Japanimation characters, but does has an Ewok-looking thing. That goes dude does have an impressive spread, though

One has to think about why we need something like this to begin with when it’s painfully obvious that spreading your legs is universally seen as rude. We do live in a dumbed down society where we like fun new terminology that combines two words like “glamping” or “cronut.”

On the other hand, it gives a creative coprwriter and ad agency a sweet campaign to work on. I would like to see an ad where a woman punches a guy in the crouch who manspreads. That will get guys to close their legs real quick.